Category: Travel

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Holidays Travel

Getting From Here To There By The Numbers

I’ll be spending the Thanksgiving week with my family over near Dallas Texas at my brother‘s and sister’s-in-law house. According to Mapquest it’s 1,368.87 miles from my home to their home (exact addresses utilized). Mapquest estimated the time to drive that at 21 hours and 11 minutes. In order to drive that number of miles in that estimated time I would have to drive an average of 64.6 MPH. That won’t happen. I typically use a base average of 60 MPH when I estimate how long it will take for me to drive from here to there on long road trips. It takes into account my average highway speeds as well as various stops along the way for gas, food, drink, bathroom, etcetra. So at 60 MPH it would take me nearly 23 hours to drive from Homestead Florida to Allen Texas – minus an hour for the time difference – so that’s 22 hours. That would be a two-day event – and not half on one day and half on the next day either. I don’t think that I would want to drive 11 hours in one day and then 11 hours the next day, but I think that I could drive perhaps 15 or 16 hours on the first day and then the remaining 6 or 7 hours on the second day. That would create an overnight hotel stay somewhere in Louisiana on the way over, and near Lake City Florida on the way back home.

How much would the 2,737.74 mile round-trip cost in gas alone ?  I estimate that gas will actually drop down to the $3.50 per gallon level by Thanksgiving week. So at 30 MPG that’s a little more than 91 gallons for a total cost of not quite $320.

Round-trip airfare between Miami and Dallas will cost more than that. In fact I checked earlier today, and had I booked the round-trip flight that I really wanted it would have cost me over $600 !  Right. I’ll wait a bit until that drops down into the $400s. I don’t book my airfare based on the lowest round-trip cost on the cheapest airline. I book it based on the exact flight that I want. I just wait for the cost of that specific flight to drop down to a reasonable level. Airfares fluctuate daily, so I’ll be monitoring it regularly.

I’ll probably fly to Dallas for Thanksgiving week, but some day I will drive the miles. When I do that I’ll take my time and explore places along the way. There are a lot of cool things for me to see between here and there !

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Blogging Books Computers Driving Food God Health Holidays Shopping Sports Television Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  Of all of the regular weekly blog entries that are posted on here this is the one that I look forward to compiling and posting more than any other. This is totally unrehearsed, and I am totally unprepared for it. This is raw, and that’s what makes it so cool. I have absolutely no clue what I plan to blog about for the next 9 items of interest, but I’ll just let my fingers do the talking and watch what happens.

2.  The 10TH season / 9TH summer edition of “Big Brother” on CBS-TV begins this Sunday night at 8 PM EDT / 7 PM CDT. Please don’t bother me while it’s on (three nights a week as usual).

3.  Some days everyone around me is a lousy driver. They either drive too slow in front of me, pull out in front of me, or tailgate me. This was one of those days. I couldn’t wait to get off of the streets.

4.  Everytime I sneak a peek at this book I spend more time in it than I intended. I need to find some time this weekend to intentionally spend a couple of hours with it. It’s what I do for Life Pointe Church. It’s how I serve God and His children here in Homestead.

5.  This afternoon I ordered a medium roast beef sandwich combo (with curly fries and a Sierra Mist) and an apple turnover via the drive-thru at Arby’s in Florida City (where all the food is). That’s what I paid for, and I’ve got the receipt right here to prove it. I got the curly fries, the Sierra Mist, and the apple turnover, but in lieu of the medium roast beef sandwich that I was truly looking forward to devouring I instead got – get this – a REUBEN !  I can dig mistakes like that when they work out in my favour flavour !

6.  Are you tired of all of the rain here in Homestead (nearly 14 inches over the past 22 days) ?  GOOD – I’m forecasting very little to no rain at all for the next 5 to 7 days (until perhaps early next week). Let’s see if I’m right.

7.  The Washington Redskins and The Indianapolis Colts kick-off the 2008 NFL season with the annual Pro Football Hall-Of-Fame Game in Canton Ohio on Sunday August 03RD 2008. That’s only 26 days away. THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN’ ABOUT !

8.  I saw my hot new laptop on sale at a Best Buy in Plano Texas last week. The longer I wait the cheaper it gets with more power. Laptops with 4 GB of RAM are pretty much standard nowadays. So are desktops with 8 GB of RAM.

9.  I survived my 5TH cold in 8 months. It lasted 6 days. I kinda knew that I was getting it before I got it, and it was pretty much gone before I realized it. Here’s hoping that I don’t have to be blogging about my 6TH cold in 10 months come Labour Day Weekend !

10.  THIS JUST IN – My brother and his wife (my sister-in-law) now have a cold. My 6-DAY cold ‘peaked’ on its 3RD day. That was my last full day at their house. I felt a little bit better on the 4TH Of July – the day that I left them behind and flew back home. A single contact with my nasty cold germs left behind and it was pretty much all over for the both of them. They’ll probably infect each of their coworkers.

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Health Holidays Travel

Saturday Morning Shenanigans

Here now is a final ‘quick-hit’ wrap-up of my 7-DAY / 6-NIGHT Texas vacation:

1.  I spent 4-DAYS and 3 NIGHTS on the River Walk en San Antonio.

2.  It was my 4TH trip to San Antonio, but the 1ST that wasn’t military-related.

3.  I adore the River Walk. If I had to live in Texas then that is where I would live.

4.  Every day would be a ‘Major’s Walk-A-Thon’.

5.  How did I get my 5TH cold in 8 months ?  I touched things !

6.  The 5-HOUR drive to and from San Antonio with my brother was a lot of fun.

7.  My brother and his wife live in a ritzy suburb of Dallas – Allen.

8.  They live in a peaceful and quiet suburban yuppie neighbourhood.

9.  Allen is surrounded by McKinney, Fairview, Lucas, Parker, Plano, and Frisco.

10.  I’ll be back in Allen in exactly 20 weeks for Thanksgiving !

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Food Health Travel

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – San Antonio River Walk

1.  In addition to all of the walking that I did on the River Walk en San Antonio on Monday morning (by myself) and on Monday night (with my brother) I walked the mother of all walks long and short on Tuesday morning. It was longer than any previous walk (around my neighbourhood) in ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ history !  The River Walk may just be the greatest place ever to do a ‘Walk-A-Thon’.

2.  Me and my brother ate dinner at Casa Rio on the River Walk on Monday afternoon. It was quite tasty Mexican food Jesse. I enjoyed the ‘Casa Rio Deluxe Dinner’. It’s apparently their #1 seller. It consists of a Cheese Enchilada, a Tamale, a Crispy Beef Taco, Chili Con Carne, Guacamole Salad, Chili Con Queso, Mexican Rice, y Refried Beans. ¡ Era delicioso !

3.  On Tuesday afternoon we ate dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack on the River Walk. I also ate there for dinner during my last visit to the River Walk in October 2003. I enjoyed the Shrimp Pasta Alfredo. It was an abundance of tasty pasta and succulent alfredo sauce with mucho bits of shrimp. That’s What I’m Talkin’ About !

4.  After all of that walking and eating we took a 30-minute tour of the river by water. It was a lot of fun, and our tour guide was the king of corny one-liners on the river. I think that he may have been a reject from one of the local comedy clubs. Nevertheless he made everyone giggle throughout the cruise. The cruise was sort of like a final wrap-up or summary of all of the walking that had been previously done by me / us (moreso me) on Monday and Tuesday.

5.  After the fun cruise we bid a fond farewell to the Paseo Del Rio, and we walked on up to the street level of the city. We took a few pictures over at the Alamo Plaza. (The Alamo itself was long closed by the time that we got there at 7 PM.) We spent about an hour over at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not ! right across the street from The Alamo. There was a lot of loco stuff to look at inside that place !